Social media changed public relations! You may be asking what social media has to do with PR, right? let me ask you a question. What is the goal of Public Relations? To create and maintain a positive image of a brand or an individual. Right?
But how PR has been practiced so far? Newspapers, Radio, and TV Press releases have been the traditional means for doing PR. Although still effective these methods no longer hold the same power in this hyperconnected digital world. Today, social media has emerged as not just a complement to PR strategies but an instrumental part of the industry. Changing the PR landscape altogether. In this blog, we will have a deep look at how social media has disrupted the PR dynamics.
1. The Rise of Two-Way Communication proves how social media changed public relations
Two-way communication
The old Public Relations relied on newspapers, Radio, TV, and the Press for conveying messages. These are all examples of pretty one-sided communication. These channels effectively reached the audience but the audience had little opportunity to react back or engage. So how could brands gauge the public perspective about a product or service? For instance, if you are launching a new gadget in a newspaper, it is available to all who bought the newspaper. So you can’t identify who is your potential customer and who is not.
But things have changed dramatically after the integration of social media into PR. Now if a business posts a brand-related update on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube, the audience can also respond to that in real time helping brands get immediate feedback and insights.
According to research, nearly 63% of modern-day consumers want brands to provide their customer services through social media. Big brands like Nike and Spotify were quick to recognize this trend. They have already started providing customer support on social media. Both Nike and Spotify have dedicated Twitter accounts for customer service where they address their customer’s queries in real time.
2. The Power of Social Listening
Social listening
Social media is flooded with countless text, image, audio, and video data. So it can be overwhelming for brands or anyone to track what is relevant to them. Here the solution is a powerful tool called Social listening. It can help track relevant conversations and identify new trends and public perceptions about a brand on social media.
Social listening will help you in a few ways by analyzing all those keywords, brand mentions, and hashtags that you see on social media:
Social listening will identify if any wrong messages about a brand are getting circulated on social media. This is an obvious crisis and a PR professional needs to jump into an immediate conversation—a way to damage control. You will learn the root cause of the dissatisfaction. The brand also can keep improving its product or service until the grievance dies out and trust is restored.
Social listening will also pinpoint the journalists or influencers talking about your brand or industry. You can partner with them to boost your brand.
Social listening is good for competitor analysis. You will know about your competitor’s new launches and media coverages, press conferences or events they are attending or discussing, and industries or topics they are following. This will enrich you with invaluable ideas and insights helping you grow your brand.
Nike has benefited immensely from social listening in identifying customer conversations, new trends, and areas of improvement for their products.
3. The Role of Influencers
Influencer marketing
In recent years, a new marketing strategy has come up that can turn your PR campaigns even more effective and successful. This new trend is – influencer marketing. Influencer marketing means collaborating with social media influencers with a sizable following. PR agencies can highly benefit if they partner with such influencers.
Each brand has a customer base but one unique way to grow that number is to club their PR efforts with influencer partnership. Imagine highly rated influencer Dhruv Rathee with over 26.2 million followers is promoting your brand in one of his epic YouTube videos! Surely your brand will cross your normal network and reach a broader audience with increased brand visibility.
Moreover, in this day and age, the public does not listen to your brand story, they prefer to listen to third-party content. So if brands integrate influencer marketing with their PR campaign for a new launch, the credibility of that launch can increase manifold. Such partnerships with influencers can be very fruitful, especially for start-ups or small businesses. Why? People are reluctant to buy an unfamiliar product or service. But what if the promotion comes from an influencer who they follow? They will probably give it a try, because, now the trust score has increased.
But don’t forget to ensure that your chosen influencer must embrace your brand or industry values.
4. Crisis Management in the Digital Age
Crisis management
Social media is a double-edged sword! On one hand, it will give your brand an unprecedented reach with a mouthful of options to engage and build communities. On the other hand, the slightest of mistakes in a tweet or post or misinformation can spread like wildfire tarnishing your brand image.
Therefore, for obvious reasons you need to keep two key points in mind while running a PR campaign on social media for your brand:
The first is using automation software like social listening tools to monitor what is happening on social media. These powerful tools are your secret weapon not just for tracking brand mentions or industry keywords, but also for keeping an eye on shifts in public sentiment related to your brand. So you can instantly identify a sudden negative swing and take proactive actions before it escalates.
Secondly, the public will always want to hear from you if any crisis occurs. So you need to address the issue immediately. But don’t manipulate the facts in doing so. Because in this digital age, people want transparency. In that case, any attempt to cover up can backfire. Hence, a more thoughtful approach is required. Empathy is essential while communicating with your audience in this situation. Stay consistent with the message you are trying to convey. If necessary, consider hosting webinars or virtual events to reveal the truth.
The Future of PR is Social
Today in this digital landscape social media has transformed the very fabric of public relations. PR is no longer a traditional one-way communication where brands simply promote themselves and the public remains passive listeners. Now due to social media both brands and audiences can engage in real-time interactions. Enhancing the acceptability and credibility of brands.
With the advent of social listening, brands today can efficiently monitor public sentiments and address crises promptly with transparent and empathetic communication.
More so, the latest trend of partnering with social influencers has further amplified brand outreach.
So, embrace the change and let social media take your PR game to a new height.
